Promoting ISIL: Feeling the Wrath of Facebook Admins

Other than jihadis talking to eachother, it's not often that Yemenis discuss the intricacies of infighting between Syrian opposition groups. That infighting has been a huge topic as of late, most notably the clashes between Al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with a number of groups under the Islamic Front - an umbrella organization of Islamist opposition fighting groups in Syria.

Today, however, we were witness to a fascinating interchange between diehard supporters of ISIL and an administrator from Syria's most popular revolutionary Facebook page. The exchange occurred on the Facebook page of Yemeni journalist Abdel Razaq Al-Jamal, who wrote a strongly-worded post praising ISIL and criticizing other opposition groups:

Post reads: "Al-Jazeera uses the term "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" and not "Da'esh", but the channel shows what happens in Syria in this way: The opposition is fighting the Syrian regime, ISIL is fighting the opposition. But in reality, ISIL is the one being fought by America, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and those nations' tools in Syria, and among those tools are factions of the opposition." ("Da'esh" is a dismissive acronym used for the group by its detractors, and sometimes by just normal observers). 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, these are not exactly objective words. They are, however, pretty extreme... Al-Jamal is making a not-so-subtle verbal attack on the brigades of the Islamic Front, who have been battling ISIL forces for several weeks. Several Salafi-Jihadi groups fight under their umbrella, including Ahrar Al-Sham, whose leader was designated by Ayman Al-Zawahiri as one of Al-Qaeda's representatives in Syria. ISIL's recent vicious tactics against both fellow opposition groups and Syrian civilians led to criticism from the majority of hardcore idealogues of the Salafi-Jihadi world, including Abu Basir Al-Tartussi,  Mohamad Al-Maqdisi. All of this criticism has been highly visible, taking the form of public videos, open letters, and press statements. In fact, this very point is what Sara Al-Idlibi, the administrator of the Syrian Revolution page, brings up when responding to Al-Jamal:

Sara's comment: "Are the Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar Al-Sham, Jaysh Al-Islam, Lawa' Al-Tawhid, and Jaysh Al-Mujahideen [all Islamist, fairly radical fighting groups] all tools of America, if so, then who is on the right path then? Do Baghdadi and those with him think that they are solving everything? You are wrong Al-Jamal, and unfortunately Al-Qaeda's image had been distorted as a result of your support to the organization of Al-Baghdadi"

Interesting in Sara's comment is her use of the term "تنظيم البغدادي" or "organization of Al-Baghdadi", which indicates her refusal to address ISIL by it's somewhat dignified self-made name "Islamic State." These newer names for the group have been picking up steam online, especially since the recent infighting. Another name commonly seen is "Baghdadi's State" as compared to "Islamic State".  After getting some responses from ISIL supporters on Al-Jamal's page, Sara responds again:

Sara: "If, in your point of view, all Syrians who revolted against the regime prior to hearing of Baghdadi are collaborators/agents of 'Sahwas", criminals, and apostates, then what do you call Al-Zawahiri, Maqdisi, Abu Qatada, Al-Tarifi, and Qunaybi, etc. and others who criticized Baghdadi harshly - are they also apostates, have they also become 'Sahwas'? Please, think a little bit, it won't hurt you."     (Here, 'Sahwa' refers to Sahwa or Awakening councils formed by US troops in Iraq, made up of local Sunni tribes who allied with US forces to fight Al-Qaeda. Since that time, al-Qaeda sympathizers often label any native group who opposes them as 'Sahwas')

What's so fascinating about this whole exchange is that Al-Jamal usually never gets much blowback when discussing Al-Qaeda issues on his page (he usually mentions them in a subtly positive light). In this case, his overt praise for ISIL may have been stretching it a little bit... So much so that an actual administrator of Syria's most popular revolutionary Facebook page emerged to rebuke his supporters.